An Arms Length
by Kazima Kuwabara
Summary: This is set a bit after the episode, Beast Within, the one where BB is changed to a monster. Well there is another monster, but it is not Beast Boy, no. To Beast Boy the monster is Robin.


okay this has been in my head for a long time, and I've decided to finally write it, so I can take a break from the four arcs I decided to do...at once. :sighs: Oh well after I watched "Beast Within," for the third time, I realized how mad I was getting cuz of Robin so...here we go.

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In the medical room, Beastboy was strapped down on a medical table Starfire sitting on his hands, and chest to keep him from thrashing too much. "Beastboy, we are trying to help you, please friend! Stop screaming!" Cyborg fumbled with a sedation, as Raven tightly held Beastboy's arm. "Sorry buddy," Cyborg murmured as he pushed the needle in his arm, and pushed in a sedative.

Almost instantly Beastboy stopped thrashing, and Starfire removed herself off of him. Raven instantly began to place ice packs on him. Though he was sedated, he still squirmed, and was awake, even if it was just barely. His glazed over eyes looked at her, and he murmured, "Raven...I hurt." Raven nodded, and paused, "Beastboy, we're trying to bring your temperature down..." Cyborg leaned down ruffling his green hair, "You've been so sick you keep transforming into an animal, what I gave you will stop that and we can focus on making you better."

Beastboy nodded, and grasped Cyborg's hand with his, when he tried to remove it. Cyborg motioned for Starfire to bring him a chair, which she did, and he sat down. Cyborg watched as the smallest member of the Teen Titans pressed his mettle hand to his face, cooling the hot skin. Robin entered the room, with more pillows and blankets, and asked Starfire, "How is he doing?"

"Muc-"

Starfire was interrupted as Beastboy began to scream, and jumped off the table, breaking the straps. Cyborg cried out, as Beastboy wrapped his scrawny arms around Cyborg's neck and began screaming at the top of his lungs. Robin took a step back, and watched Cyborg try to hush their sickly friend as if he was a baby, crying out for something unknown. Beastboy screamed, "MAKE HIM GO AWAY! MAKE HIM GO AWAY!"

"Who?" Cyborg patiently asked, "Make who go away?" Beast boy pressed himself closer to Cyborg, it was as if he was trying to flatten himself and become part of Cyborg's mettle chest. "HE DIDN'T BELIEVE ME! I KNEW I DIDN'T HURT RAVEN...AND...AND HE DIDN'T TRUST ME! HE'S NOT MY FRIEND!" Cyborg looked at Robin who had this hurt, shocked expression on his face. Robin reached for the fragile teen, "Get back on the ta-" Beastboy screamed again, and turned his accusing teary eyes to Robin.

"YOU WERE NEVER MY FRIEND! I...I didn't know what was happening to me when I...I was turning into that beast-I DIDN'T KNOW! You...you..YOU WERE SO EAGER, SO...so ready to send me away, and lock me up in a cage...animals don't like cages. I don't like cages...and when Cyborg tried to calm me down...You chased me! YOU SHOT AT ME WITHOUT CONSIDERING YOU COULD CALM ME DOWN BY JUST TALKING! I DIDN'T HURT RAVEN AND YOU KEPT PUSHING ME, AND PUSHING ME UNTIL I TURNED BACK INTO THAT THING! You...you were so eager...so eager...you were never my friend," Beast boy laid his fevered brow against Cyborg's chest, and closed his eyes going slack.

Everyone was looking at Robin, and they knew what incident that the green teen was talking about. They knew Beastboy was referring to when Beastboy had been covered with chemicals, and had caused him to go primal.

Robin stood quietly, muttered something about going to workout, and then left as quickly as he could. Starfire looked at Beastboy, and then the others, "He is sick. Beastboy knows not of which he speaks!" Raven nodded, and whispered, "Yes, he didn't mean it."

"No he meant it."

The two girls looked at Cyborg, who had wrapped a blanket around Beastboy, and cradled him in his lap. "Beastboy meant every word, and I agree with him." Raven raised one of her eyebrows, and Starfire let her hands flutter nervously to her open mouth. Starfire shook her head, and whispered, "No, Robin-"

"Enough!" Cyborg shouted, and silenced the girl. Cyborg ran his fingers through Beastboy's hair and whispered, "Listen to what I have to say before you go defending him. I've felt close to all of you...but I've always considered Beastboy the closest to me...he and I are like brothers. When those chemicals splashed on him, and Beastboy turned into that beast for the first time, Robin said he wasn't worried about Beastboy...he didn't even flinch when we found Beastboy's belt laying on top of the rubble in the sewer. He didn't seem worried, just angry and annoyed." Cyborg was looking at the girl's, and saw that Raven knew what he was talking about, while Starfire still looked on in denial. Cyborg shifted the weight on his lap and continued, "Then when we brought Beastboy back, Robin treated him like hell, grilling him, and grilling him, trying to force Beastboy to remember something. I felt a little uncomfortable about this, but then again I knew Robin was smart, I figured he knew what he was doing." Cyborg snorted angrilly.

"Maybe I was wrong," he whispered as an after thought. Starfire, lowered her shaking hands, "Please continue." Cyborg nodded, and spoke again, "He knew something was wrong with Beastboy and sure enough the harder he pressed, the angrier Beastboy got before changing again. Robin and I chased after him, and I found him first. I had managed to calm him down, and he looked at me, and I knew he recognized me. Robin showed up and sent him running and then-THEN SHOT HIM! I felt strange, questioning what he was doing, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt...I'm not so sure I should have. I should have spoke up and told him that what he was doing, seemed wrong. Like he had already slapped hand cuffs on Beastboy's wrists." Beastboy made a soft sound, and Cyborg rubbed his back until he was quiet again.

"His scream, that cry of pain was what woke me up," Raven said, the two Titans looking at her. "I was healing myself," she continued, "In my trance I could feel Beastboy's spirit. I followed it from the time he scooped me up in his mouth, his Spirit was gentle, filled with concern and confused. When you arrived, he didn't recognize you, and thought you were going to hurt me, so he attacked. When you brought the both of us back to the Tower, Beastboy was scared, and then when Robin came near him, he was even more scared, and then angry. When he changed again, he was hurt...hurt in the fact that his friends seemed so ready to go against him, but he was hurt mostly by Robin...even after he took the antidote. I could still feel him hurting, I never approached him. I just didn't know how." Starfire nodded her head, after Raven finished, "I...I knew too."

Starfire looked at the door, "I felt it...the stillness in the air when Robin entered a room Beastboy was in. This has been building up on Beastboy a very long time, we all should have done and something but for now..." She looked at her friends, "It is time the two talked..." The three nodded, and Cyborg pried the green teen off him. "He should be fine for the time being," Raven said placing her hand on his brow, and with a quick nod, exited with the others following her.

When the door shut, Robin walked slowly out of the shadows, and took the seat Cyborg had been in not just a minute ago. He took Beastboy's hand, and whispered, "Let me tell you a story of a boy. He lived at the," Robin's voice cracked, "He lived at the circus, with his parents. Guys showed up, and tried to do something wrong, and the parents died, and a man, a very wealthy man took in the child. The boy soon found out this man was Batman, and he was trained to be the sidekick." Robin looked at Beastboy for a good while before continuing, "There is two ways to love someone. Hold them close, or hold them at an arms length away. That was how this boy...how I was treated. He loved me, but held me at an arms length watching me from afar, but loving my like any father loved his son. But you see...I...I have forgotten what it is like to fully love someone, to hold them close. I learned that from my father...from batman, it is safer to hold people away from you. You don't get hurt that way. He has forgotten how to care, trust, and fully love the person, and so I learned to love, to care for people while they are an arms length away. When...When I thought you were that monster, I couldn't have cared for you more, but I held you away, so that if you were...if you were the monster, ending the misery you were in would be nothing."

Robin clutched Beastboy's hand, and pressed it to his black mask, "I...I hold all of you away from me...you''ve never even seen my real face...because...honestly sometimes I don't know if it's there...what my true face is. A cold fighter for justice, or a teen happy to be surrounded by his friends. But Beastboy...even if you can't hear me your one of the people I care for...all of the titans." Rabin let his voice fade away.

He didn't know what to say.

Robin froze when he felt Beastboy's hand stroke his face lightly, "Sorry..." a soft whisper escaped Beastboy's lips, and his eyes slowly opened. He saw Robin there, and looked at him miserably, he could see the boy from Robin's story. He wanted so much to cry, but he was taught not to, but his face showed his misery. Beastboy let his hand slide up Robin's face, and very carefully he removed the mask.

Smiling, Beastboy slid the mask up, and closed his eyes again, but he grasped Robin's hand tightly. Robin used his teeth to remove the glove off his other hand, and felt Beastboy's head. His fever was coming down.

An hour later Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven found Robin sleeping slumped over on Beastboy's bed, about to fall out of his seat. The two teens hands were clasped in their slumber, and the three awake Titans stood there. They weren't shocked by this scene at all, only one thing stood out to him.

In his hand, that was not covered by a glove, he held his mask, and his naked face laid against Beastboy's chest; listening to the heart beat. 


End file.
